Review of They Live (1988) by Rosco B — 13 Apr 2013

Struggling labourer John Nada (pro-wrestler `Rowdy` Roddy Piper) comes across an unusual pair of sunglasses. When worn, they reveal the `real` world; run by hideous skull-faced aliens posing as yuppies, and awash with mind-numbing advertisements. Teaming up with the human rebels that manufactured the shades, Nada sets about getting to the heart of the alien menace.

The first hour of `They Live` is great fun, as Piper gradually discovers the secret monochrome world through the sunglasses. These scenes showcase Carpenters savvy eye for the stylistic and his underlying, wicked sense of humour as the hero gets to grip with the visions ("It figures it'd be something like this.") It is based on a very slight short story (`Eight O`Clock in the Morning` by Ray Nelson) , and Carpenter is required to pad out matters, most evidently and gleefully with a ten minute fist fight sequence ("Put the glasses on! Put `em on!" is the rationale) that goes on record as one of the longest ever filmed. Unfortunately the last third of the film is less interesting, dispensing with much of the fun factor and delving into formulaic action tropes. It also serves to hint at the grim future of Carpenters nineties filmography.

As the lead, Piper suits the day-glo, comic-book feel of the movie well. He`s not much of an actor, but at least gets to intermittently flex his wrestling muscles and delivers his quotable one-liners ("I've come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass"; nice) with cocky relish. Keith David is also good value as his pal, Frank: his reluctant opponent in the show-stopping fisticuff.

Elsewhere, I second-guessed Meg Foster`s role as an alien quisling on account of the icy, eerie contact lenses I figured she was wearing. Seeing her later on in another movie, I twigged: her eyes are naturally like that. As Foster herself said in an interview: "I bring my own special effect for free.".

There`s a sense of Romero in the way that Carpenter prods at the nerves of capitalism and consumerism in the pulpy format. In its early stages, the film - while never clever-clever or preachy in its politics - is a cartoon-veiled critique of Reaganomics. The early snapshots of rising unemployment and homelessness, coupled with the brash sloganeering of the aliens ("Obey" etc.) makes `They Live` a rare left-leaning American picture of the Reagan Era, especially scarce in its genre pigeonhole of lowbrow action.